


face of an angel

by zhongsroyalty



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Relationship, painter!renjun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26663389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zhongsroyalty/pseuds/zhongsroyalty
Summary: renjun finds a pretty face to paint
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Mark Lee
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58





	face of an angel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [10tensus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/10tensus/gifts).



> stacey!! hello u said u wanted a markren fic for ur bday so here i am :D HAPPIEST of birthdays to u my queen!!!! apologies in advance i haven’t written in a Long While. but i hope u know i love nd appreciate u nd so do markren!!! hope u live ur 20s (oldie alert!) and 30s (grandma alert!) and the rest of ur life (about to deteriorate alert!) happy and healthy. ure my fave nurse, did i ever tell u that?

The beaming sun filters through the clouds; the heat hitting Renjun’s face as he sits alone with his back aching against the plastic stool. He has his arms leaning against a wooden frame board next to him and slowly he can feel his eyelids threatening to shut, the summer heat almost getting the better of him.

It's been hours he’s been sitting here. He didn't know how long, but judging from the way the clouds were gradually shifting he figured sunset wouldn't be too long away. 

Renjun hadn't gotten lucky with customers today. It was a Thursday. Weekday. People are always too busy for him on weekdays. He didn't blame them. If it wasn't for the horrible minus figures blaring red on his bank account balance, he was sure he wouldn't be out here collecting dust and actually be making use of his hours.

Renjun was not a quitter though (or so he believed). He had a total of one customer today— that was one more than last Friday. It was a talkative middle aged lady who told Renjun all her family secrets within the first few minutes they started conversation. She had gorgeous long brown hair, which Renjun thoroughly enjoyed painting, and after he’d finished with her the lady returned three hours later holding a heated flask with homemade honey tea. She was a sweet lady. 

However that whole ordeal was hours ago and since then Renjun had been sitting, waiting outside for anyone to give him a chance. He wore his special blue beret to even boost his chances of attracting the eyes of the public. Renjun figured someone would look his way and he then would immediately send them one of his groundbreaking smiles. Usually, said stranger would then come his way and slowly, Renjun would lure them into agreeing to a portrait. It worked all the time on weekends. 

Not so much today though. Renjun now was sure his lower back had turned numb and decided to get up and stretch out his pains. Granted this wasn’t ideal to do in the middle of the street but Renjun didn’t hold much care for what the locals in the area thought. He twisted and turned his back suddenly engrossed with the small warm up he started.

Renjun was in the middle of lifting his leg up, sticking out his arms to reach the tip of toes when a stranger's voice suddenly spoke out of nowhere; making the boy jump and almost fall flat on his face.

“Uh, hello?”

Renjun quickly whipped his head around so fast he was pretty sure he heard his neck crack. He looked at the person in front of him and tried to regain composure; standing up tall in front of this stranger.

“Can I help you?” Renjun asked. 

He was shocked to see himself staring at quite an attractive boy- man. He looked around Renjun’s age but was a couple inches taller and had straight black hair. The stranger’s eyes were wide and looked so unbelievably kind Renjun found himself drawn to him instantly.

“Oh uhm,” The stranger’s eyes widened and he directed his eyes towards the sign hanging up on the wall behind Renjun. 

_‘Get your portraits drawn by an incredibly talented artist now!’_ It said.

“I take it, you’re incredibly talented artist?” the stranger asked.

Realisation settled into Renjun and his frown quickly morphed into a polite smile. “Oh yes! That’s me, just take a seat right there. You want a portrait, right?” Renjun asked, pointing towards a seat behind his easel with newly found excitement.

“Sure.” The stranger answered, taking his seat.

_Sure_. Renjun liked the way he said it. Like he was the one doing Renjun a favour by just sitting there. 

“I’m Mark, by the way.” The stranger, now Mark, added.

“Renjun.”

Renjun quickly set up his canvas and paints and looked towards Mark to figure out how he would start off. He was slouched against the chair he was sat on and was looking around, already distracted it seemed like.

“I’m gonna need you to sit up.”

Mark immediately fixed his posture and put both of his palms on each of his knees. He stared hard at Renjun and put on a face so uncomfortably straight that everything looked wrong.

“In a comfortable way, I mean.” Renjun explained. 

Mark then relaxed a little but didn’t bother with putting on a smile like people usually did.

“It’s okay to smile, you know.” Renjun commented. 

It was a stupid thing to say. He regretted it as soon as the words came out. There was something already so captivating about Mark that a smile wouldn't make much less of a difference. He had the aura of a model or something. Those models you only find in magazines and spend minutes just staring at their face instead of the clothes.

Mark then shook his head and Renjun raised his brow.

“The Victorians never did.” He shrugged, as if that was all that mattered.

This earned a small laugh out of Renjun and he began mixing his colours. He decided he liked Mark. Out of all the customers he had for the whole week, he was one of his favourites and he’d only known him for three minutes. Nothing could beat the honey tea lady but maybe he was a close third. The second being a little nine year boy who started crying when Renjun finished his painting. No one ever cried over his stuff so it was heartwarming to see someone so appreciative. He was a cute boy.

“The victorians _did_ smile.” Renjun muttered, starting his painting.

“No, apparently they were too lazy to even move their face.” Mark argued.

“How did they talk then?” Renjun asked, his eyes focused on drawing a good outline.

“Through eye contact.” Mark answered.

Renjun nodded as if what he’d said made complete sense. “I'm just gonna assume you failed history.” 

Mark chuckled at that and looked down to play with fingers. Renjun quickly got caught up with perfecting Mark’s skin tone on his canvas and hummed a little tune to himself after a couple minutes of silence. 

Renjun found it was easy painting Mark. He has so much life in him. From the way he styles his hair to the way his cheeks are permanently tinted with pink. Renjun found himself thinking of so many things he wanted to know about Mark. He didn’t usually feel this way about the people he painted- or just met. This was weird.

“Are you a good artist?”

The blunt question distracted Renjun from what he was doing. He used this chance to flash Mark one of his award-winning smiles and put in a good word about himself. “The best.”

“Really?”

“You don’t believe me?”

“You know what they say about overconfident people.” Mark shrugged; his eyes gleaming almost as if he wanted to get a reaction out of Renjun.

Renjun shot him a glare and focused back to his painting. “Im confident for a reason, Mark. You’ll see.”

That wasn't a lie. Back at his parents house, frames of his art pieces were hung in every single room, even the toilet. His best friends, Donghyuck and Jisung, wore t-shirts designed by him. His room was covered with all sorts of paintings and even his phone case was original work. He _was_ confident for a reason. Multiple people had told Renjun to pursue art because he was just _that_ good. He really loved art. 

However, as much as his heart pumped paint instead of blood, he was stuck doing a stupid STEM course at university and the only way he could break out of eternal misery was by putting on his blue beret, sitting on the streets in town and offering to paint portraits of random strangers. Bad decision, he knows. However, the amount of people who failed to find a good career in art was much greater than those who took STEM. Failure wasn't a good look and if a fear of it meant never trying, Renjun would do exactly that.

“So where did you come from, Mark?” Renjun asked, disliking where his thoughts were going and picking up a conversation. 

He looked at Mark. He was wearing almost all white apart from his shoes which were black. Bold choice but Mark wore it well. It made people focus more on him and his face— Renjun liked that.

“Like where am I from?” Mark questioned, confused on how to answer.

“No, where did you come from? You just popped out of nowhere whilst I was in the middle of doing my stretches.” Renjun comments, pausing. “You’re kinda like an angel.”

“Angel?”

Speaking without thinking. It was a disease Renjun realised.

“I meant like- not in that way-”

“ _Not in that way?”_

“Okay maybe in that way but-” Mark flashed Renjun a grin as soon as he said that. It was the first time Renjun saw him smile all today and _God_ \- it did make a difference. “Just stop moving.”

Mark erupted in a fit of giggles whilst Renjun tried his best to his blushing face behind the easel. He didn't know what he was thinking honestly- calling him an angel?

“It's not that funny, stay still.” Renjun nagged, deciding he wanted to be professional all of a sudden.

“Okay.” Mark hummed, still grinning.

“Don't even blink.”

He was actually serious about this one. Mark blinked a lot when he spoke, Renjun noticed. Maybe it was just a thing just with Renjun but he needed to see his eyes. They were beautiful and Renjun needed to capture them. Right now Mark’s eyes were like sparkly saucers. They shone when he grinned and the sun shining in his direction made it seem like there were stars in them. No way he could leave this out.

“I can't even blink?”

“No.” Renjun replied, staring hard into his eyes, hoping to set some force.

Mark gazed back for a second before blinking.

“Stop.” Renjun said.

Mark blinked again.

“Dude.”

And again.

“Stop.”

And again.

“Is this a joke to you?” Renjun exclaimed, pointing his paintbrush at Mark.

Mark laughed with delight at Renjun’s frustration and even Renjun couldn't help the small smile threatening to break. 

“I dont get why I cant blink though.” Mark said somehow seriously. “Just take a picture of me or something if you really need, I don't want dust entering my eyes.”

“I'm not taking a picture.”

Mark shot him a confused look.

“The Victorians never did.” Renjun answered.

Mark rolled his eyes.

Renjun smiled to himself and turned his attention back to what he was doing. “Also, I need to paint the stars.”

“What stars?”

Renjun hummed. “The ones in your eyes.” 

The disease strikes again. Renjun had half the mind to smudge his face onto his palette of acrylic paints and once again he could feel his ears heating up and his cheeks changing colour. 

“I have _stars_ in my eyes _?”_ Mark exclaimed, eyebrows shooting up with shock. 

“I didn't mean it like that!” Renjun was quick to defend his bluntness.

“What did you mean then?”

“Like, y’know.”

Mark nodded in false understanding. “Right, totally get you. Stars.”

“Exactly.” Renjun coughed.

He didn't get him but Renjun was in no state to argue. They continued whatever small talk they had going on and Renjun was surprised to see how quickly he grew comfortable around Mark. He made sure to paint his smile _and_ the stars and focused entirely on his face. He changed the background to make Mark the only thing people would want to look at if they somehow found this painting and kept in all his ‘imperfections’. They were perfect to Renjun. 

He finished the painting as a whole pretty quickly and handed it over to Mark when dry, surprisingly feeling nervous at what his reaction will be.

“Wait, holy fuck? What the fuck?”

Mark’s reaction was priceless. Renjun instantly let out a breath and broke into a huge smile looking at his face. He wouldn't even mind painting another picture entirely- one that captured Mark’s incomparable expression.

“Do you like it?” Renjun asked, his voice small.

“Of course I like it, oh my God.” Mark replied, his eyes stuck on his portrait. “Renjun, you should go pro or whatever artists do. This is _incredible._ ”

Renjun could feel his heart bursting with pride at his achievement and got up to pack his things away. He was done for the day he figured.

“I'll think about it, thank you Mark.” He wouldn't think about it but what else could he say? Thanks for the compliment, but i've decided to neglect my talents and find a career that features something to do with science, technology, engineering or maths? 

“Wait, I need to pay you before I forget.” Mark exclaimed getting up- reminding himself more than anything.

“No! It's okay, I do this for free.” That was another lie.

“Why the hell would you do that?” Mark asked, disapprovingly yet still taking out his wallet.

Renjun shrugged his shoulders and began folding up his easel.

“Let me pay you at least.” 

“No, I refuse.”

“With a cup of coffee?” Mark persisted.

Renjun stopped and thought for a moment. He then studied Mark’s face before giving him a small smile.

“Sure.” Renjun said.

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> not a painter! leave thought if u want though :] no pressure


End file.
